A plus to survival rate IV

Marcus

“20…” My hand quaked. I don’t know why, but I seemed to have lost my ability to interact as an intelligent being, being a human as I am. The small joints of my fingers seemed to trembled endlessly, like I obtained Parkinson’s disease right after my eyes laid upon the amount in my bank account. If we were to ignore that six hundred dollars balance in my bank account, how many zeroes am I seeing?

“One, two, three…” I began to remunerate the zeroes again. I was pretty sure I’ve counted the zeroes like more than a couple times already, but my common senses seemed to be unable to make sense of the amount I’m seeing.

“Oh.” My fingers twitched at the fifth zero when a notification popped out on the screen stating ‘operation timeout’. I’ve been spending too much time counting I didn’t even notice I’ve been opening my bank app for too long while being idle.

“20 million dollars…” My lips mumbled softly, slowly letting that fact sink in. How many figurines would I be able to buy with that? Will I be able to fulfil my dream and go to Japan with that money? Will I be able to attend a cosplay event there?

My thoughts swirled and I gradually grinned. Not a great idea to suddenly grin in the break of dawn a few minutes after waking up, but all in all, I am deeply satisfied right now.

I just wish that there is a method for me to communicate with the King. I know that he is a CEO of a huge company, a whale among the fishes, if I may say in the nerdiest language I could pronounce, and it is almost impossible to communicate with him when you know you can’t even see him directly. To add, I figured out that I might be able to learn more about the CEO if I looked at the sender’s name, but even the name was labelled as private.

I heaved a sigh and massaged my lower jaw. Okay, that’s enough grinning for now, I have to get up and get ready to go to class. Boxing practice comes after that, so maybe I should bring a change of clothes or something? And some stick-on heat pads because even though autumn is less cold than winter but it is the same amount of hell as winter is.

I hopped off the bed after tossing the pillows to one side and straightening the comforter to at least look presentable and clean. Up until a certain point of life, you will experience the need to make sure that your bed is tidy. Primarily because if I didn’t clean the bed, I’ll find myself shrieking at the sight of cockroaches infesting my bed. This is definitely spoken by experience, and the size of American cockroaches are a no joke.

After strutting away from the bed, I peeked my head into the bathroom and reached the water tap to twist it open. While waiting for the hot water to fill the bathtub, I picked some ingredients from the fridge and the pack up my bags.

Now that I remember it, didn’t Rox said something about me having to commute from the uni? What did he mean by that?

“I mean, my house is literally fifteen minutes away from the uni by walking distance, so if he’s talking about me having to commute to uni everyday doesn’t seem to make any sense.” I monologued to myself while applying the foam from the bath bomb onto my arm. The lavender scent is quite nice to the nose. I’m lucky to listen to the store clerk about which bath bomb is the best to buy.

I continued on bathing until the last session, where I have to apply some oil to my skin. Damn, I’m slowly getting used to these beauty sessions since those lucid dreams started. I can’t help it, okay? Man, I feel like cursing when I remembered the event last night when Rox called me all of a sudden after not summoning me for so long. And that, was during the time where I decided to not do my skincare for the night.

But I’ll forgive Rox and the King because I just got some big buck in my bank. I won’t get questioned by the bank about my account balance, right?

After finishing my routine and eating breakfast, I was about to step out from my house when I finally realized that my body is not in pain.

“…Hm?” I patted my arms and chest, and also fumbled my back. I remember my back being the most painful spot among my entire body, yet it didn’t feel painful anymore, it didn’t feel painful anywhere at all.

“What in the world…?” Does this have anything to do with me meeting Rox last night? Does merely meeting him successfully perishes all the fatigue and pain that I experienced?

Still confused, I opened the door of my house. Even though I’m not getting what’s happening right now, I’ll just have to ask Rox about it later.

“Are you Marcus Collins?” Two towering figures stood in front of me, blocking my path and rendering me to halt midway during my walking. The two of them has an almost identical features between each other if not for a single beauty mark beneath the eyes on one of them. The one who talked to me was the one without the beauty mark, and his tone sounded just like his appearance, a kind and friendly looking Asian guy.

“Can you follow us somewhere right now?”

Wow.

I shuffled back a bit.

Is this what they call coaxing method before the kidnapping?

“Who…” I passed my gaze in between the two of them. The two of them were smiling at me, with the one without the beauty mark on my left smiling wider than the one without the beauty mark who was standing on my right.

“…We’ll tell you if you followed us.” The one on the right side spoke, with a smooth, easy to listen to voice.

I was about ready to run away, but my gut is telling me that the two of them are more dangerous than what they seemed to be. So, feeling slightly wary, I nodded and followed them.

I don’t know where I’ll be taken to, but entering a black, thickly tinted car is not a good sign, right?

"Want some drinks?" The non-beauty-mark dude offered me a can of soda. It was a bit rude to reject, but only God knows what they did to that drink.

I waited nervously for the car to arrive at its destination. Several structures passed by the car, yet I still didn’t feel like we’re nearing our destination.

“We’re here, sirs?’ The driver said, probably addressing the two twins as ‘Sirs.’

The car stopped right in front of the building before the twins stepped out.

The architecture of the building is a bit unique, with a bridge supporting both of it. This building looked a bit different from the corporation building I think of. Wait, different?